Fabric boot



Patented Sept. 2O

N. Pimm mnemngmpner. washingm n, c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.,

MARTIN v. BEIGEE, or MIsHAWAKA, INDIANA.

- FABRIC BOOT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 370,307, dated'September 20, 188'7.

Application tiled July 7, 1887. Serial No. 243,664. (No model.)

To aZZ wwm t may concern:

Be it known that I, MARTIN V. BEIGER, of Mishawaka, in the county of St. Joseph and State of Indiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fabric Boots; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull and accurate description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein* Figure 1 is an elevation showing my boot before fulling. Fig. 2 shows the same when completed.

Boots made of wool are now used in great numbers in the colder parts of the country, and especially by persons whose business requires them to be away from beaten roads-- such as lumbermen and others of similar business-because they are warmer than leather boots under similar circumstances. Many persons wearing such boots find it necessary to go where the snow is sufficiently deep to cover the boot-top, and it is common to prevent filling the boot with snow by a stringor strap tied around the boot-top. This practice soon spoils the leg of a fabric boot, which is broken and cracked by the crimping, and is uncomfortable and injurious to the wearer, because it obstructs the circulation of blood in his leg.

In the Patent No. 367,333, granted jointly to myself and Adolphus Eberhart, July 26, 1887, there is described a boot whereof the leg and foot are formed entirely by knitting, and my present invention relates particularly to the boot therein described, though I do not intend to limit Amyself to the use of it with boots formed wholly by knitting; and it consists in an elastic `knitted leggin permanently joined to the top of a fabric boot and constituting a continuation thereof to extend from the boottop up the wearers leg, to close with an elastic cover the opening at the top of the boot, to exclude snow and to increase the wearers comfort by increased warmth and the absence of ligature.

I am aware that shoes have been made from fabric and from leather and provided with elastic tops, 'sometimes made of knitted stuff and sometimes by inserting elastic fabric inv the form of gores or puckering edges. 'I am also aware that both shoes and boot-l'egshave been provided with straps and with lacingstrings, so that the upper edge might be closed lightly around the wearers ankle or leg. These provisions all effect the same result in one. sense, since they close up the upper edge around the Wearers leg or ankle; but they differ from my invention herein described, because none of them has a fabric boot at all similar to this or capable of substitution for it, and because the method of applying the means for contracting the top is not applicable to a fabric boot-leg. t

In the manufacture of knit boots, such as described in the application referred to above, the elastic top A is knit with properly hardtwisted yarn, but rather loose, so that when shrunken .in the fullingmill it will still retain the required elasticity. When the top A has acquired the desired length, say to b, the knitting is continued to form the leg and foot, of the boot proper,B,with the exceedingly coarse and looselytwisted yarn described in the specification referred to, so that the elastic top A and the boot-leg B constitute a single homogeneous continuous structure.

In the after treatment in the fulling-mill,A

the loosely-woven boot with loosely-twisted yarn is shrunken and consolidated and rendered hard and sti', while the top, knit of 8o hafdtwisted yarn, will not become hard and sti v To apply my invention to wool boots made from bats felted, the top A is knit, as above described, and its lower end for a few inches thoroughly teaseled. It is then joined tothe bat and the whole shrunk and felted. The knit ,top is thus felted into the bootleg and made continuous therewith, but the joining isl not very secure, and may be made more so by a row of stitches around the boot-top. When this boot is in place on the foot of the wearer and the elastic top A drawn up over the thigh, no snow can enter the top of the boot, and there is no discomfort from compression or ligature of the leg.

My elastic knit tops may be applied to leather boots by stitching the end of the knit top to the leather boot-leg, if desired.

Having described my invention, I claim*- l. '.Ihe improved boot herein described, provided with the elastic knit leggin constituting the upper portion of the bootleg, adapted vto is composed of the elastic top integral-With operate substantially as set forth. y said body, adapted to closely fit the leg7 for Io 2. The felted fabricboot provided Withthe the purpose stated. knit elastic upper portion, adapted to contract Y 5 closely about the leg of the wearer, for the purpose set forth.

3. The boot herein described, consisting of the knitted body, the upper portion of which MARTIN V. BEIGER.

Witnesses: 1

WM. FISHER, F. G. EBERHART, J r. 

